Social Situations
The next 9-1-1 call gives us a glimpse of how the diverse Ladder 126 works in difficult social situations. They are called to the scene where a lady has called 9-1-1 because her neighbor’s yard has a small amount of smoke rising from the dirt. It didn’t take long to learn they were cooking barbacoa underground. It quickly comes to light that the neighbor has called to police on them several times and she is judging them based on their ethnicity.
When Owen states he is going to citizens arrest her for creating a nuisance 9-1-1 call she quickly fakes a heart attack. She doesn’t want Marjan touching her, and as she learns that T.K. is a homosexual, Captain Strand isn’t certified, and Judd refuses, she lands on Paul. As he starts assessing her, he informs her that he is trans and decides she’d rather go to jail than continue the charade. The way they lightheartedly brought discrimination to life was entertaining and shed light on real-life situations.
Wavelengths
T.K. and Carlos have a steamy session at Carlos’ place and it’s easy to see the two are on very different wavelengths. Michelle decides to see a curandera and decides to follow her instructions in hopes of finding her sister, Iris. Owen has a crazy dream about being bald and being made fun of by the crew and Michelle. He also attempts to rescue someone from a burning building but she declines, stating she’d rather die than be rescued by someone who looks like him. He awakes with a start, visibly rattled by the dream.
Owen opens up to Michelle about his dream and irrational fear of losing his hair and she shares with him the fact that she went to see a curandera in attempts to find her sister. It was great to see the two captains bonding over their crazy lengths they go to obtain what they highly value. She informs him the witch gave her a spell to try and help find her sister.
Creative Thinking
Ladder 126 is dispatched to an apartment complex with a gas leak. They evacuate all the residents except for a man, Howard Dalton, who refuses to leave because he believes there are people out to get him. He pulls a gun on Marjan claiming she’s with the overlords. When Marjan tells Captain Strand that he couldn’t get him to leave he decides the only way to get him out it to jump into his fantasy.
They pretend to be with the resistance and tell him they are going to smuggle him out of the building. They give him a helmet and firefighter jacket to get him out. Halfway through the evacuation he stops, freaked out that he forgot a tool that will help him detect the overlords. T.K. quickly steps in and uses the gas leak detector to pretend the overlords are hiding in an apartment behind them. They quickly rush to safety as the building explodes and Howard shares his gratitude from the resistance for saving him from the overlords.
Cowboys in Texas
Judd takes Owen out into the country for a horseback ride. After donning their cowboy hats, they take off on a beautiful ride through the countryside. Judd explains to Owen that he needs to hold onto what matters in life and even if he loses his hair he needs to do whatever he can to stay alive. He also tells him that they now know he looks good in a Cowboy hat.
T.K. shows up at Carlos’ house for what he thought was going to be a hot night. Carlos made dinner, a fancy looking dinner at that. Carlos wants conversation and to get to know T.K. He says that it’s just dinner and not a marriage proposal which cuts T.K. deep. T.K. that an invite after midnight meant one thing but Carlos invited him over after both of their shifts were done. The tensions run high and T.K. leaves without explaining why everything set him off.
Grace helps Judd recall the details of the night of the accident and you can visibly see the tension leave his body after he recalls the details and Judd admits he feels so much better now. Their moments together are probably a highlight for me and I hope we see more screen time for Grace as the season progresses.
Thoughts
In the closing montage, we see Michelle completes the spell the curandera gave her and Owen look at old photos of his son. Owen gets rid of all his hair treatment supplies, throwing them in the trash. Owen is finally ready to battle his cancer.
While episode one was packed with tons of storylines, I loved how we got to dig a little deeper into a few storylines in episode 2. I felt this episode was an elevation of the pilot and we are getting a better feel of how this series will play out. With the graphic depictions of mercury poisoning as well as storyline development for some of our main characters, I can’t wait to see what is next. Don’t forget to tune in on Monday at 8/7c to see what crazy situations the team finds themselves in next.
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